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THE 



IPHIILOSOIPIIlf" 



OF THE 



CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



BY 



J 

T. N. HOENSBY 




LOUISVILLE: 
Davidson Brothers &. Co., Printers, 

1870. 



Cl. 



3^ 
.HI 



\^2> 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1870, 
by 3?. N. HoRKSBY, in tlie Clerk's Office of the District 
Court for the District for Kentucky. 



THE 

PHILOSOPHY 

OF THE 

CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



Friend, go up higher. — Luke xiy: 10. 

mTRODUCTIOK 

What can be so interesting to man, as 
man himself? Standing, as he does, in a 
world of change and death, himself a sub- 
lime mystery, with the lights and shadows 
of revelation and reason, he is called upon 
to solve the problems of his existence; the 
two great miracles, his origin and destiny ; 
and, in the midst of the revolutions of times, 
and the bleeding conflicts of good and evil, 
conform himself to the attributes of God, 
which constitute true holiness and happi- 



ness; or, failing in this, and having not 
within himself any of the elements of hap- 
piness, he must be supremely miserable. The 
assertion of the unbeliever in Revelation, 
that the Christian builds his hopes upon a 
blind faith, is unjust and groundless ; for no 
faith can grow out of a revelation that rea- 
son does not first approve. The difficulty in 
the way of the unbeliever is, that his reason 
has become incrusted with the world and 
lost in the labyrinth of his worldly passions, 
and he resists the Spirit of God, that alone 
can open up his reason to a sublime faith in 
the truth of revelation. 

The aim of every one should be to discover 
and follow truth, and especially that truth 
which the Scripture has revealed to us, as 
paramount to all earthly considerations. 
Heaven itself does not begin after death, 
but in this life. Its germs must sprout and 
grow while here, in the divinest archives 
of the soul. " The heart sees before the 
head," and feels the object of its search to be 
among the possibilities, before it can ever 
be admitted to the high court of reason. If 



5 



any given truth find no place in the heart, it 
will likewise find no place in the head, and 
be forever shut out from the light of reason. 
The unbeliever in nhristianity has his reason 
thus obscured, because his heart rebels 
against its divine truths. We must love 
truth, in order to find it. We must love holi- 
ness in order to be holy. We must love God, 
or we can never be like him. God is truth and 
must be approached in the spirit of truth; 
he cannot be mocked; and none but undi- 
vided aspirations can reach his throne. 
Prayer is the life of the Christian; his body 
is the temple of the Holj^ Ghost; God re- 
sides in every holy desire of the heart; he 
has made that desire; he makes that germ to 
grow; the '' Spirit itself maketh intercession 
for us with groanings which cannot be ut- 
tered,'^ and softens the heart and imprints 
its own image in it. Prayer and regenera- 
tion are the cognate work of God. 

Kothing is so important to the sentient 
soul of man as a knowledge of the elements 
of that religion which alone can meet the 
requirements of his nature. Inherent in 



6 

the make of man is his longing for immor- 
tality and happiness; which shows that the 
feelings of his nature have foreshadowed the 
Christian revelation. If nature so impress- 
ed desire without revelation, how should 
man with open heart receive its fulfillment, 
when revelation, at its noontide blaze of 
light, as with a double tongue, calls him to 
the feast of its highest realization? We 
would call that man insane, who would 
shake a scintillating firebrand over a maga- 
zine of powder ; but he would be sanity itself 
compared with that soul, who, by the rejec- 
tion of all the requirements of his being, 
would dare to trifie with the word of God. 

Religion itself is capable of no improve- 
ment; but man's improvement in it can be 
confined to no limit: his heart may expand, 
as it becomes more and more the treasure- 
house of the knowledge and love of the In- 
finite One, '^ with an exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory/' 

The vibrations of the air compose one of 
the elements of sound, and not sound itself; 
but when these vibrations strike upon the 



drum of the ear, they form a compound with 
the perceiving sense, which we call sound. 
So God's word must meet a response in the 
perceiving qualities of Eeason, before it can 
produce faith and its attendant train of hea- 
venly beatitudes. The man who can give 
no reason why he believes a thing, does not 
believe it. An Apostolic injunction was 
laid on all Christians, that they should hold 
themselves in readiness, at all times, to give 
their reasons for their faith in Jesus Christ. 
Paul was himself one of the deepest reason- 
ers that the world has produced, and gave 
full scope to his reasoning powers in his 
explanation and enforcement of the precepts 
of religion. 

These salient points have been taken, 
that no one may be frightened when the 
plummet of reason is thrown into the still 
waters where no adventurer has been. We 
have heard the voice of the Lord of the uni- 
verse who spread natures feast before us, say, 
^'Friend, go up higher!" — and we intend 
to go. If no one follow us, we will not be 
alone, for God will be there. 



8 

THE FALL OF MAN, AND HIS EEDEMPTION 
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. 

We have in Scripture the contour of the 
origin and fall of man, clearly adapted to the 
meager knowledge of the primitive ages, 
and to the aggregate intelligence of all ages. 
It is a picture drawn, evidently ''to point a 
moral/' not "adorn a tale/' Its author was 
.Divine, and knew how" to adapt the mold to 
the material to be impressed. The Scrip- 
ture is singular in this ; all of its instruction 
is aimed at the heart, and not the head; so 
that the intellect receives no more lis^ht 

through that medium than that which is 
necessary to point the moral tendencies of 
the heart, God, through all of his works, 
wastes no material. Where reason can be- 
come a co-worker with revelation, the Scrip- 
ture throws but a partial beam; the rest is 
left to reason. A surface picture has been 
given us of the fall of man, also a surface 
picture of his redemption by the sacrificial 
oflferins: of Jesus Christ. These were suf- 
iicient for a time; for it is indispensable in 
the proper development of man's nature 



9 

tliat his knowledge and the development of 
his heart-life should be in equipoise, and 
grow steadily together. With the wicked, his 
knowledge of evil is in advance of his knowl- 
edge of good, and he is hurled to and fro in 
the tempest of his passions. If his knowl- 
edge of the good surpass the developments 
of his heart he is equally miserable, as may 
be discovered in the agonized feelings of an 
awakened and repenting sinner. Though 
the Scripture gives us but one view into the 
kaleidoscope of God, the arcanum there dis- 
covered, like a well of water forever spring- 
ing up within us, flows through and perme- 
ates nature to her utmost verge. Inheavenly 
things, the way to be more wnse, is, to be 
more holy. Only the religious eye can enter 
the Holy of Holies and discern the su- 
premely beautiful in the ways and the works 
of God. 

That which constituted the fall of Adrm 

and Eve was their own actual transgression. 
And that which constitutes the fall of every 
human being, after the years of accountabil- 
ity is its own transgression. But, by impu- 



10 

tatioii, all are included in Adam's fall, in as 
much as all are sure to transgress the law, 
as Adam, who did transgress it ; for man, 
though perfect of his kind, could not be 
made equal to the fulfillment of a law that 
was necessarily as pure as God himself. 
God being the standard of perfection, no 
created being could be equal to the Eternal 
and unchangeable one. To this fact the 
justice of God stands surety, that the sin of 
one man was never transferred to another. 
Adam's nature, however, as a created, and, 
therefore, a fallible being, was imputed to 
all of his posterity, merely by the necessity 
of the case. The imputation here means 
nothing more than the statement of a simple 
fact. Was it possible then for Adam to 
have kept his first estate of innocence? l^o. 
It was impossible. Why ? Because he was 
a fallible being. That was the cause of his 
fall. His fall shows his falJibilitj^ , and his 
fallibility insured his fall. 

To go deeper still into the mysteries of 
intelligent creation, the fallibility of man is 
based on a prime necessity ; that necessity 



11 

caused also the fallibility of all the angels of 
heaven ; a'part of which fell lower than man ; 
another part, although they are said to 
"have kept their first estate/' by comparison 
with fallen man and the legions of hell, are 
not without their foibles and follies; for it 
is written of God in the Holy Scriptures, 
"Behold, he put no trust in his servants; 
and his angels he charged with folly ! '' Sin 
and folly, then, are not confined to earth and 
man, but they have scaled the heights of 
heaven and approached the throne and 
presence of God, where Gabriel stands. All 
the holiness of all the angels of heaven, is 
but a borrowed ray from the Sun of Righte- 
ousness, the inconceivablj^ and eternally just 
and holy God. The fall of man, originating 
as it did in the prime necessity of his falli- 
bility, did not ofiend God, nor for one 
instant shut the gates of heaven against 
him. Sinner ! God's free grace abounds 
towards you ; he loves you with an eternal 
love , he cannot change ; he cannot cease to 
love you ; but with your heart of stone, un- 
clianged by the Holy Ghost, God's regener- 



12 

ating Spirit of Love, you hate God and his 
hohiiess. 

The sufferin^rs of Jesus Christ were not 
vicarious, the assumption of such an idea is 
repugnant, nay, utterly abhorrent, both to 
reason and Scripture. Jesus Christ was 
God, God with us, both human and Divine ; 
and God, in his Divine Spirit, could not 
more sufler than he could change. Such an 
idea would also be utterly inconsistent with 
God's free grace. To show that reason and 
the Scripture stand exactly together, the 
Apostle Peter said: "Christ also suffered 
for us, leaving us an example, that ye should 
follow his steps.'^ Christ was our pattern, 
and we are told to follow his steps, which 
steps we could not follow if his suiFerings 
passed the limits of humanity. Himself said, 
"Ye can indeed drink of the cup that I drink 
of, and be baptised with the baptism that I 
am baptised with." God and Christ being 
one, how could justice, against its own irre- 
fragible laws, strike at innocence in its own 
unity, thus making three infractions against 



o 



the laws of justice, innocence, and unity? 
Tlie atonement of Jesus Christ, though a 
bleeding sacrifice, made perfect through 
suffering, was an atonement of love. God 
showed to us thai he had laid no burden on 
us in the fulfillment of his righteous law^s, 
that he was not willing to suffer himself in 
a humanity as frail and sensative as our own. 
The Divine perfections were also gloriously 
reflected from the character of Jesus Christ, 
while the road to heaven was opened through 
his death and resurrection. God's com- 
mandments, though divided in precepts, 
have a unity of purpose, and demand a 
unity of obedience ; so that the infraction of 
one precept not only violates that precept, 
but all the precepts in their unity of pur- 
pose. All the plan of salvation is to save 
man from himself; not from God's wrath, 
but his own. Man is the only enemy of 
man. Sin is the idolatry of self-love; man 
worshipping himself. Wonder of wonders ! 
"What a worship ! What an idol! Self-love 
feeds only on the soul, and is spiritual can- 
nibalism. The Christian religion spreads 



14 

auother feast before him : — To love God uud 
all of his creatures; and, in return, to be 
loved by all. IIow rich, hov^ varied, how 
uncloying, how endless the banquet 1 

All the offerings and sacrifices, from the 
time of the righteous Abel to the time of 
our Saviour, were made by man to God, the 
creature to the creator. But the one great 
and princely sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the 
wonder of angels and men, was made by 
God to men, the Creator to his creatures. 
Yes ; to his offending, sin-stained creatures 
God offered a bleeding sacrifice, not of 
the flocks of the field, but his Son, Himself 
clothed in frail humanity, to melt their 
stony hearts, appease their wrath, and draw 
them by the cords of ineffable love, to Him- 
self. Was ever love so condescending, so 
sublime, so free ? Down to the doors of 
death, down to the gates of hell, the voice 
of a loving God appeals to erring man, and 
says, "Friend, go up higher I " 

TKIISriTY 

Is a word that is not found in the Scriptures. 
The word was made to represent a mystery ; 



15 

and a mystery was made to represent the 
word. The So-called mystery which the 
word represents is no mystery at all ; but is 
nonenity, absolute insanity. It is a bantling 
of folly, too puerile to be introduced into the 
high court of reason. By accounting, how- 
ever, for the existence and use of the three 
names of God in which we are baptised, we 
are clearly able to see those truths which 
have been hidden from the world for so 
many ages. 

As no man has seen God at any time, he 
does not require us to believe in his exist- 
ence without infallible proofs; he therefore, 
has given us a three-fold manifestation of 
himself. All believers in the Christian 
Church are baptised in the name of the three 
proofs of the existence of a God. He is 
called the Father, because he has manifested 
himself as such, by the creation of all things; 
and the existence of what we behold, is the 
first proof of the existence ot a God. He is 
called the Son, because he took upon himself 
the form and flesh of mortal man, which 
w^as the workof his hand, and thus conveyed 



1(3 

to us ocular demonstratiou iind audible 
teachings. He is called the Holy Ghost, 
because he manifests himself spirituall}'' to 
the spirits of men, and gives the third and 
crowning proof of himself by inspiring our 

hearts with a true faith and knowleds-e 
which regenerates us from darkness and 
death. 

Had we received the first proof alone, we 
would have been deists. Had we received 
the first and second only, we could have 
been but little more than deists; Christians 
only in name ; our understandings would 
have been approached bythe outward senses 
alone, while our hearts would have remained 
untouched ; and, like devils, we could but 
"believe and tremble." But the last proof, 
the Holy Ghost, kindles our hearts with an 
inextinguishable flame of triumphant faith 
and love, leads us into the presence of God, 
and will constitute our felicity forever. 

God is three ways made manifest : This 

is what composes the so-called Trinity of 

God. 

God is truth ; and every new truth dis- 



17 

covered arms ua with new powers to set our 
feet on the kingdorh of darkness, and ap- 
proach the living light wherein he dwells. 

EEPENTANCE 

Is the abandonment of self-love, and the act 
of turning from the worship of self to the 
worship of God. A change so radical, the 
work both of God and man, is the most 
sublime spectacle that can be presented to 
the gaze and joy of angels, throughout the 
I'ange and in the limits of creation. Nor is 
it strange ; for all the idol gods in the cal- 
endar of paganism, are not so baleful as the 
idol self. Their worship is sweet incense 
rising up to heaven, compared with the 
chilling, damp death-dews of the worship of 
self. Self-love digs hell and builds a 
wall around it higher than the bird of hope 
can fly. Self-love is the imperious monarch 
that presides over the legions of darkness. 
To w^rest this barren scepter from his hand, 
is all the work of redemption. When his 
erring creatures offered sacrifices to the 
Most High, he deigned to answer them by 
fire from heaven, which signified his recog- 



18 

nition of their oflerings and his love towards 
them. Though these sacrifices were but 
shadows, they were accepted. Now, when 
God has oftered to his creatures a sacrifice so 
costly that only the God of the Universe could 
ofier it; ebfore whose awful magnificence the 
sun veiled his face, and the earth trembled to 
her center and rocked to her dark founda- 
tions; to draw his creatures up to himself 
by the cords of his love; can his creatures 
fail to answer him by the fire of love from 
their hearts ? 

God only can know the worth of an im- 
mortal soul; only he can know the baleful- 
ness of sin ; only he can know the distance 
that self-love stands from himself. This 
costly demonstration of his infinite love was 
founded therefore, on the counsels of his 
wisdom and the unbending necessity of the 
case. In view of all this, self-love is yet so 
strong in the heart of man that it can only 
be removed by the power of the Holy Spirit, 
which enlightens it and turns it to repent- 
ance. Thus enlightened and moved by 
Divine power and love, the sinner calls on 



God for help ; the Holy Spirit energises his 
struofirles to throw oft" self and take God in 
its place, and '^maketh intercession for him 
with groanings which cannot be uttered.'^ 
In this struggle in prayer, ofiered in the 
name of Jesus, for the new and heavenly 
life, the Holy Spirit imprints the seal of the 
new and everlasting covenant in his heart; 
it overflows with love to God; a sinner is 
born again ; and there is joy in heaven 
among the holy angels. This is repent- 
ance. 

IS GOD THE AUTHOK OF SI:N^ ? 

This question is in a rough state, and 
needs must have much dressing before it 
can be made answerable by either an affirm- 
ative or negative term. If stated aright, the 
question would answer itself; its statement 
would be its answer. Who is the sinner ; 
God, or man? Man is the sinner. Then 
man is the author of sin. Sin is the coinage 
of act. Whose image and superscription 
are upon it? Man's. Then it belongs to 
him; give unto him the things that are his. 
To say that God was the author of sin, would 



20 

be to make God fallible and man infallible ; 
nay, it would say more: that God's law was 
impure, and man's acts were pure. Adam, 
after his fall, with a lie in his mouth, at- 
tempted to acquit himself of sin, laying it 
on the bounty of his Creator in giving him 
a lovely and companionable woman. This 
Adam knew to be a lie. Aaron made an 
attempt to lay the authorship of his sin of 
making a golden calf to worship, on the fire 
and the gold ; that he put the gold in the 
fire and it came out a calf. Aaron was as 
certain that this was a lie, as that he had 
breath and life; and all men who sin, know 
that they are the authors of sin, with as 
much clearness as Adam and Aaron knew 
that they were both sinners and liars. 

Sinner ! you have no time to quibble, no 
time to waste in deceiving yourself. Sin 
can hurt you only so long as you adhere to 
it. Fly to an ever-present Saviour; he is 
the ressurrection and the life ; your faith 
kills that leprous monster; there he lies, a 
breathless corpse ; and your repentance is 
his unrefunding tomb. 



21 

PKAYEK. 

Jesus said unto Nathanel, ^^Because I 
said I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest 
thou? thou shalt see greater things than 
these. Verily, verilj^ I say unto you, here- 
after ye shall see heaven open, and the 
angels of God ascending and descending 
upon the Son of man. '^ Prayer is the earnest 
desire of the creature addressed to the 
Creator by petition. Prayer is the key that 
opens heaven; and every hol}^ wish and every 
right desire is an angel messenger of God 
ascending to heaven upon the Son of man ; 
and every spiritual blessing in answer to 
prayer, is an angel of God descending upon 
the Son of man. This is what Nathanael 
was to see ; not by the organic eye of the 
flesh, but by the eye of spiritual discern- 
ment. Jesus Christ is the only door to the 
celestial Paradise ; the only way by which 
God can be approached. A prayer offered 
to God, except through the intervention of 
that adorable name, is deader than brass ; 
but in it, 'tis all- vital, omnipotent to save. 



22 

Where is the sinner to seek for God in 
prayer? Must he ascend to heaven and 
bring him down ? or to the depths below, 
and bring him up? No; but be must find 
him in Jesus Christ. Where is he ? He is 
on thy tongue and in thy heart He is an 
omnicient, omnipresent, and all-potent help. 
Cast out self-love and the pride of self-de- 
pendence, and call on him with all thy 
heart, and he will immediatelv be found of 
thee, a purely spiritual and personal Being, 
filling the heart with unspeakable love and 
joy. Then and there is the kingdom of 
heaven set up; a mystic heaven, hidden 
from all but thee alone. And only by prayer 
can a regenerated heart be renewed from 
time to time, and grow up in the likeness 
of all the Divine graces of God. 

To be born of water is to be introduced 
into the visible church. This being nothing 
more than an outward form, may be done 
without prayer; for the hypocrite may be 
born of water. It is an outward declaration 
of an internal faith, and nothing more. The 
thief on the cross made a public declaration 



23 

of his, and it was accounted to him for bap- 
tism by water. But to be born of the Spirit, 
to receive the Holy Ghost, is not only an 
entry into the spiritual heaven, but it is 
heaven itself. There is no offer made in the 
kingdom of grace, but through the inter- 
vention of prayer : "Seek, and ye shall find ; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you." 
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock : 
If any man hear my voice and open the 
door, I will come in to him, and will sup 
with him, and he with me.'^ This offer, so . 
divinely free, and so boundlessly munificent, 
is made to prayer. Truly, a prayerless 
sinner is a miracle of woe ; his sickness is 
unto death ; for he has drunk the poison, 
but refused the antidote ; and heaven's rich 
pharmacopoeia has been opened to him in 
vain. 

SPECIAL POYIDEKCE. 
Chance is a word that was made to rep- 
resent an event that the human mind could 
not anticipate ; it, therefore, has no defini- 
tive meaning. It represents a failure to 
reach the cause of a result ; to give it a pos- 



24 

itive character, then, and say that it makes 
or controls anything or everything, is in- 
sanity. Chance is a phantom of the mind, 
that claims no higher parentage than abso- 
lute and blindfold ignorance. Yet this is 
the specter that infidelity or atheism sets up, 
to control a world that infinite wisdom and 
infinite power have devised and created. 
The providence of God is as special and 
minute, as it is great and absolute. It pre- 
sides over all, or nothing. It cannot divide 
its empire with dead inanition. 

All things that have form are evanescent, 
and are not completed until they cease to 
exist. This world, with all that it contains, . 
is in an uncompleted state. The hand of 
the Divine Architect has not yet been lifted 
from the work of creation, and his divine 
power and will, with every moment of time, 
are changing and shaping anew all things, 
to the minutest fiber of existence. God's 
will and power are inseparable, and all 
things exist through his will and power that 
^re possible to exist ; so that what does not 
really exist is an utter impossibility. Shall 



2d 

we go further, and say why this impossibil- 
ity exists ? It is this : God is eternal and 
unchangeable, and can form no new plans. 
What he does is the fulfillment of fate. 
"What he does not do is its boundary. To 
recognize chance in any way in the broad 
extent of creation, is ideally, to dethrone 
the Almighty, and worship an idol as ab- 
horrent and empty as Beelzebub, the god of 
flies and "prince of devils." For one then 
to hold to the doctrine of chance, is to hold 
to the "doctrine of devils." Let this, and 
only thisj be named or recognized in a 
Christian land ; "The Lord God omnipo- 
tent reigneth." 

What a solid foundation is this, to sup- 
port us in afflictions ! What consolation is 
this : that no real evil can come to the 
righteous. From this cause it is said that 
the righteous shall inherit all things ; for all 
things will work together for good^to those 
who love and serve the Lord. Sinner, all 
the evil you may devise or act towards the 
righteous man shall be turned to good to 
him ; thus verifying that hardest of all par- 



26 

adoxes: that from him that hath not, even 
that he hath not shall be taken away; and 
given to him that hath. The sublime teach- 
ings of our Saviour respecting a special 
providence, that seemed so transcendental, 
were really not arbitrary precepts ; but were 
referable to the most solid, axiomatic rea- 
son, as facts inherent in all the works of 
creation. The wicked man kicks, as Paul did, 
against the pricks ; he can hurt no one but 
himself ; and all he needs is salvation from 
himself. Man is the worst enemy of man ; 
but his enmity can only reach and stab his 
own individuality. He would do hurt to 
others; but God binds him in chains, and 
"makes the wrath of man to praise him," 
by permitting him to do only that which 
will ultimate in good. Be glad ye righteous ! 
and give thanks for every drop you drink 
from the cup of joy ! Even through second 
causes, behold the munificent hand, and 
worship the Divine giver ! 



27 

WHAT IS TKUTH ? 

This question is bard to answer; and 
harder still to mistake. Physically, false- 
hood is nonentity; morally, it is insanity; 
subtract these from the Universe, and pure 
truth remains alone. Of physical truth we 
need not speak; that is mathematical; the 
dead, unchangeable letter. Moral truth 
holds its place among the beatitudes of 
living spirits. In every moral truth we see, 
there is a higher truth still reaching beyond 
that finite fact. This forms a paradox in 
nature, and begets an endless war between 
the letter and the spirit of truth. 

This may be illustrated by the preaching 
of the Prophet Jonah, to the people of 
Ninevah. B}^ the Lord's direction he told 
the people of iSTinevah, "Yet forty days, and 
Ninevah shall be overthrown.'' This decla- 
ration was made without reserve ; and, to all 
human seeming, was not fulfilled. AVe hold 
truth in unrighteousness; God holds it in 
righleousness. This terrible threat was the 
omnipotent arm of God, moving in mercy. 
It was fulfilled in the spirit of truth : The 



28 

wickedness of ISTinevah was overthrown. 
This was greater than would be the over- 
throw of all the cities of the world by flood 
or fire. To get at the spirit of truth, we must 
examine both cause and effect. What was the 
cause of God's threat against Ninevah ? The 
wickedness of the people. Then, when the 
cause was removed, the threat was executed. 
The ever-active spirit of truth is forever be- 
yond the fixed data of man, and his continual 
advance towards it constitutes his union with 
it. Moral truth resides in the highest, holi- 
est graces of the heart ; and it cannot be 
separated from love, mercy and heavenly 
charity, without being destroyed altogether. 
'No promise or vow can be morally binding 
that is in conflict with true holiness ; but to 
cancel such promise or vow is in accordance 
w^ith the highest obligation of moral truth. 
It resides not in the letter, but in the inner- 
most desire to do Q^ood and. not evil. The 
devil is said to be the father of lies, but is 
not accused of making an incorrect state- 
ment. He quoted Scripture as correctly as 
an angel of light could do ; but his inten- 



29 

tion and desire were to work miechief ; in 
these lay his moral turpitude. Judge not 
according to appearance: but judge righte- 
ous judgment. The letter, the form, the 
appearance, is nothing; but the vspirit of 
holiness is the spirit of truth. Yes; in 
every moral truth we see, there is another 
truth, still reaching beyond that finite fact. 
The penitent, weary with the burden of sin, 
comes to Jesus, who is the way, the truth, 
and the life ; his sins are pardoned ; he 
feels the truth of a new, inward life; the 
truth of love fills his heart ; he feels the 
truth, that God is love; he feels the truth, 
that the whole world is full of God's glory ; 
he feels that faith is truth, that love is truth, 
that hope is truth, that heaven is truth, that 
God's throne is built on truth, that God is 
truth, and that all the joys of angels and 
glorified saints that spring up through end- 
less eternity, are truth itself. 

FKEE AGE:N^CY AIS^D PEEDESTi:N^ATIOISr, 

So far from beins: in conflict with each other, 
are indispensable adjuncts. Predestination 
confirms Free agency in every act it does ; 



30 

and free agency is the warrant and seal for 
the right of such confirmation. They are 
not opposites, but exact halves of one whole, 
forming an indestructible unity. One could 
not exist without the other. They are co- 
workers. Suppose a choice is to be made of 
one of two things ; after a choice of one is 
made, is it possible that the other could 
have been made ? I^o. Such a possibility 
would render free agency forever unsettled 
and indistinct ; nay, obliterate it altogether. 
But when a choice is once made, predestin- 
ation puts the seal of unalterable fate upon 
it, and confirms it. Otherwise it would be 
no free agency at all. Everything that re- 
lates to time and action, is as unalterably 
fixed before it takes place as it is after ; and 
that too without the slightest interference 
with the causes which produce results. 

WHY WAS JESUS CHKIST CALLED THE 

WOKD ? 

He was not called the Word until the be- 
ginning of creation. Before time, God, the 
only self-existing being, dwelt within him- 
self; but his creative power was expressed, 



oi 

in the beginning, by the creation of all 
things which exist. How beautifully does 
a word express a thought ! How sublimely 
beautiful, then, is the idea, that the going 
forth of God's creative power was the 
Word ! Before the creating God had taken 
upon himself a human form, and was man- 
ifested by the works of creation, he was 
called the Word ; because all creation was 
the expression of the power of the living 
God, as a word expresses a living thought. 
Jesus Christ was the out-going power of 
God that made ail things, and was then 
called the Word. After the Universe was 
formed, ''the Word became flesh and dwelt 
among us, full of grace and truth/^ Then 
he was called the ''Light ; " for he was the 
true Light that lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world. He made all worlds, 
with all that they inherit. Did he make 
all worlds out of nothing ? Not so. We 
adopt this truism — 

"If nothing once had been, nothing still 
would be.'^ Is matter, then, eternal ? Quite 
impossible. AH visible, tangible or solid 



9 

O^ 

substances were formed of viewless gasses in 
certain proportions adapted to the individ- 
ual substance formed. These elementary 
gasses were the primal sperm of the material 
world. Are these elements, then, eternal? 
ISiot so. The eternal attribute cannot belong 
to any, save the Infinite One. These ele- 
mentary gasses were created — but what of? 
Nothing ? ITot so. All created forms are 
but shadows ; only spirit-life is substance. 
They were formed from the inner spirit-life 
inherent in God's eternal attribute of power. 
They express an idea in the mind of the 
Most High. Space itself is only a quality 
of matter, and is neither infinite nor etern- 
al. The Apostle Paul, calls it a "creature ; " 
and he does this, too, in an asseveration of 
the most sublime and solemn import. God 
is ulterior to space; for "heaven and the 
heaven of heavens cannot contain him." 
Space bears no relation to pure spirit ; but 
only to matter does it relate, and only with 
it does it have existence. It has been often 
asked, "If space have an end, what exists 
outside of it? ' We answer, nothing mate- 



33 

rial! Space lias no outside ; it is all internal. 
"Nature abhors a vacuum ; '^ and space is 
filled with worlds and the gasses of which 
worlds are formed and through w^hich they 
take their evolutionary flight,obedient to the 
laws of repulsion and attraction. The law^s 
of nature are in essence the power and ac- 
curacy which dwells in the Divinity, out- 
wardly expressed to us through the changes 
of material things. The changes which take 
place in all material things, not only mark 
time, but make it. Before the beginning 
of creation, no time existed; and when the 
material Universe shall pass away, time will 
pass away also — not a moment will survive. 
The thought that eternity is composed of 
an infinite number of modules of time, is an 
abstraction that is born of time, that has 
grown up with it, and will with it expire. 
Eternity has not one moment of time in it. 
It belongs to spirit-life. It is an attribute of 
Deity; and immortality belongs to all spirit- 
ual existences on whom it has been divinely 
conferred. To live and to be unchangeable, 
is to be immortal. The spirits of men, being 



84 

immortal, are as mucli in eternity as they 
will ever be ; the change to higher life that 
death will bring them, will not disturb the 
living principle, but leave it intact. Eternity 
does not advance; but is a stand-point, dwell- 
ing in the light of the infinite wisdom and 
omniscience of God. Immortality has been 
brought to light by Jesus Christ, who is the 
Word, and The Light of the world. The 
gate of heaven is opened wide. They will 
be supremely blessed who enter and stand 
on the broad foundation of endless joys. 
But to the unrepenting, immortality will be 
an inconceivably awful calamity ; for it was 
said of Judas, "good were it for that man if 
he had never been born;" and so it will be 
with every unregenerated and unrepenting 
sinner. 

John, speaking to his hearers, said of 
Jesus : "He shall baptise you with the Holy 
Ghost, and with fire." The fire here meant, 
is the trial through w^hich every regenerated 
soul shall pass. "The Lord chasteneth every 
son whom he receiveth." After the Spirit 
of God descended like a dove on his beloved 



35 

Son, ^^then was Jesus led up of the Spirit 
into the wilderness to be tempted of the 
devil." When Paul had a spiritual vision 
of the third heaven, satan was permitted to 
buffet him, that he might not be exalted 
above measure. The reason of this fiery 
trial is this : When a repenting sinner re- 
ceives the Holy Ghost, he is regenerated, 
and God enters into an everlasting covenant 
with him that he shall infallibly be saved. 
The sinner has surrendered his whole heart; 
he is in the hands of an all-sufficient Saviour; 
and whatsoever trials and afflictions are 
necessary to purge him of all unrighteous- 
ness will be laid upon him. The heavens 
and the earth shall pass away; but the 
covenant that Jesus makes with the seal of 
the Holy Ghost, will be immutable forever. 
The out-going creative power of God, the 
Word, who said, ^'Let there be light ; and 
there was light," who made the spirits of 
angels and of men, cannot fail. The work 
is perfect; and there is joy among the 
angels in heaven. 



36 

WHERE IS HEAVEN? WHAT IS HEAVEN? 

The Christian religion is purely demo- 
cratic; as every constituent element of it 
leads to the happiness of each one and all 
collectively. A heaven of perfect happiness 
would be impossible on any other system. 
How important is it, then, that all should 
know and feel what constitutes true happi- 
ness! Every joy and every element which 
make up the kingdom of heaven, must be- 
long to each individual. Heaven is com- 
posed of internal qualities, and bears no 
relation to space or place. The joys of 
heaven or the pains of hell are purely 
spiritual, and bear no relation to changeable 
and morbific matter. This assertion, "By 
faith ye are saved,'^ does not mean that faith 
saves us; but that faith is the avenue by 
which we approach the Saviour and are 
saved. 

It has of late, been taugkt by some, that 
the Holy Ghost is received by believing 
what the inspired writers wrote; thereby 
receiving the Holy Ghost by proxy. You 



37 

proxy teachers and proxy believers, beware, 
that yoLi enter not the kingdom of heaven 
by proxy also ! The devils do the same ; for 
they "believe and tremble." They who teach 
this short road to heaven, are no hypocrites ; 
for they present their sun-dial boldly to the 
face of heaven, and say to all the world, 
'^Behold onr time of day in Christian 
knowledge." 

With this sort of perversion of God's 
word, the inquiry would not be, ''What 
shall w^e do to be saved ?" but, How can we 
be lost? for the way to heaven would be as 
easy as to hell, and the way to hell would 
be as hard as the way to heaven. 

If any deny that they teach or believe 
such doctrine, we readily give them the 
benefit of such denial, and hope they are 
sincere. 

ThosC) however, who persist in such easj^ 
virtue and quasi-faith, if we should ofiend 
them, w^e hereby assure them that we are 
well pleased ; for we herein feebly imitate 
the Holy Spirit, who wounds that he may 
heal. And we further assure them, that if 



38 

they are offended with us, they are offended 
with truth also, and with heaven, and with 
Jesus Christ himself. 

The friendship of man is but a small 
matter, when compared with the salvation 
of immortal souls; and he who wields the 
sword of truth should plunge it to the hilt, 
inasmuch as it gives a healing, not a dead- 
ly, wound. Truth is all-potent, and his coat 
of arms is written all over with the trophies 
of victory. 

The hardest way to heaven is the easiest, 
shortest, safest; nay, it is the only one. 
Each one should reach forth, with the high- 
est magnanimity of soul, and seize the in- 
estimable prize. In the conflict between 
good and evil, nothing but magnanimity of 
soul can win, and triumph over death and 
hell. 

WHEN WILL THE GENERAL JUDGMENT 
TAKE PLACE? WHEN WILL THE RESUR- 
RECTION BE, AND WITH WHAT BODY 
SHALL WE RISE? 

These are grave questions, and gravely 
shall they be answered. We are told by 



39 

our Saviour, that we behold the face of the 
sky and are able to discern the kind of 
weather that will follow ; that in such mat- 
ters our judgment is correct; and that we 
should likewise, by the signs of the times, 
be able to discern what is taking place in 
spiritual things. By this we see that the 
use of reason, in searching the Scripture, 
and thereby discerning spiritual things, is 
not condemned, but is highly commended. 
We are also promised the aid of the Holy 
Spirit, to open our understandings and lead 
us in the way of all truth. The assertion 
of Christ that the day of judgment was not 
known even by the angels in heaven, but 
only to the Father, refers to the time of the 
death of each individual. And the coming 
of Christ in the clouds of heaven, signifies 
his coming to meet us in the dark and najs- 
terious dispensation of death. The idea 
that there is an intermediate state, wherein 
disembodied spirits dwell, between the time 
of death and the resurrection which is to 
take place at the time the general judgment, 
is as fabulous as the idea of purgatory itself. 



40 

VV^hen the poor man died, he was taken, b}^ 
a band of angels, immediately to heaven. 
When the rich man died, he went immedi- 
ately to hell. When the thief died upon 
the cross, he went immediately to paradise. 
My friends, the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand, and the day of judgment also! The 
day of judgment began at the death of 
Abel, and also the resurrection : and they 
will continue to the end of the human race 
on earth. At every diurnal revolution of 
the earth a hundred thousand souls pass 
through the black portal of death, and stand 
before the judgment seat of Christ. At every 
second of time, a soul enters into its change- 
less state. The body that belongs to the soul 
in a spiritual state, is a spiritual body ; and 
the resurrection of that spiritual body takes 
place at death. How often shall 
we be told that flesh and blood cannot in- 
herit the kingdom of heaven, and yet con- 
tinue to look for the resurrection of our 
mortal bodies ? Skin and bone, and flesh, 
cannot enter into the world of spirits ; but 
the body's spiritual similitude can ; and this 



41 

is the body that shall rise, and rise at death. 
The Scripture speaking to sensuous beings 
like ourselves, must necessarily represent 
spiritual things by sensuous objects; but by 
a discerning spirit wc^ must approach their 
spiritual meaning. Three hundred and 
ninety-seven years before Christ, the Proph- 
et Malachi, spoke tiie word of the Lord, 
and said : "Behold, I will send you Elijah, 
the Prophet, before the coming of the great 
and dreadful day o :' the Lord: And he 
shall turn the heart of the fathers to the 
children, and the heart of the children to the 
fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with 
a curse.'' When John came, he was asked 
if he was Elijah, the Prophet, that was to 
come. He acknowledged that he was not 
the Prophet Elijah, but that he was the 
Prophet that was to < ome in the power and 
spirit of Elijah. Th is we see how frail is 
the letter, and how powerful is the spirit of 
truth. The reason is plain why Elijah was 
named. He was kn own as a great and true 
prophet, and would be received in that 
light; while John, who was to be born 



42 

hundreds of 3"ears afterwards, could not be 
so referred to. Moreover, what was any 
prophet, but the Spirit of prophecy that 
was in him? All pre phetic words, contain- 
ing spiritual and eternal truths, that have 
an import bearing on the ages of the world 
and eternity itself, must lack detail, and be, 
to short-sighted mortals, somew^hat elliptical. 
We, therefore, must seize upon the salient 
and scintillating points, and weld them into 
a unity of the whole. To suppose that there 
will be a time for a general judgment, after 
the lapse of all time, would be irrational, 
contradictory, and supremely absurd. The 
reason why the day of judgment has been 
so indefinitely stated as to time, is, that it is 
a long day, and embraces all other days. 
Elijah was translated, and Moses died and 
was buried; but they both appeared, wear- 
ing their spiritual bodies, which gave them 
perfect individual identity, when Christ was 
transfigured upon the mount. Enoch and 
Elijah were subjected i o the same change by 
translation, that Moses was by death ; for 
the earthly body of neither one could pass 



43 

into the spiritual state. When the Saducees 
asked Christ whose wife a certain woman 
should be in the resurrection, who had been 
the wife of seven husbands, he clearly 
showed them that there was no marrying in 
the spiritual state, and that there was really 
no such thing as death. To illustrate to 
them the power of God in the resurrection, 
he said, "jN"ow that the dead are raised, (not 
will be) even Moses shewed at the bush, 
when he called the Lord the God of Abra- 
ham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, 
but of the living : for all live unto him. All 
that we call the dead, live unto God as they 
will ever live ; and death, the judgment, and 
the resurrection, are identical as to time and 
act. Yes, the kingdom of God is at hand, 
and the tremendous issue of endless life or 
death hangs on life's feeble strings. Who 
loses a moment now, may lose his soul. Every 
moment we live is a dying moment ; for the 
changes and pains of dissolution are even 
now upon us. A few pulsations of the 
heart, and the landscape of mortality fades 



44 

from our view ; death has broken the seal of 
the mysterious future ; and we stand before 
the judgment seat of Christ, redeemed or 
lost forever. 

THAT THE SCKIPTUKE IS DICTATED BY IN- 
EINITE WISDOM MAY BE SHOWN, NOT 
ONLY BY ITS PRECEPTS, BUT BY ITS WANT 
OE THEM WHERE RULE CANNOT BE FOL- 
LOWED. 

When God's chosen people inhabited but 
a small portion of the earth, where the day 
was uniformly twenty-four hours in length, 
they were directed to observe one day in 
seven as a day of rest; that was the Sab- 
bath, hallowed and dedicated to the worship 
of God. But as Christianity was to cover 
the earth as the waters cover the great deep, 
the observance of an explicit command 
would necessarily be impracticable in some 
portions of the habitable globe; so the 
command to observe the seventh dav w^as 
omitted altogether, and left to precedent and 
inference. Many Christians inhabit regions 
divided by months of day and months of 
night, and, therefore, could not conform to 



45 

the seventh-day Sabbath. There is no dis- 
agreement in all the Scriptures, where 
rightly understood. God never required an 
unreasonable thing of man ; his word never 
jars with his works. This is a sufficient 
reason why all Christians were not required 
to observe a seventh day as a day of rest. 
And wherever we find a full, clear and suf- 
ficient reason for anything, why should we 
look for another? One is enough. The 
Sabbath day, however, in obedience to pre- 
cedent and inference, should be observed 
and be kept holy by all christians, wherever 
it is practicable. But where Nature puts an 
intervening obstruction, that necessity must 
be a law unto itself. 

The New Testament is silent on the sub- 
ject of self-defense ; whether or not a 
Christian has a right to slay his adversary 
who is in the act of taking his life. But it 
leaves him to the natural laws of his being ; 
his love of life, his sense of justice, and his 
fear and his passion of anger, w^hich were 
given to him for his defense : restraining 
him at the same time bv the most heavenly 



46 

precepts of love, charity and forbearance. 
The Quakers construe this silence into a 
command that they shall suffer death rather 
than resist injustice in defense of their lives. 
It is strange that that denomination of 
Christians that professes the most spiritual- 
ity, should bind itself to the letter, and not 
the spirit of the Scriptures. When Christ 
said, ''Resist not evil," the meaning is clear 
that we should not repel wickedness with 
w^ickedness, hatred with hatred, and evil 
with evil ; for, instead of curing the first 
evil, this process would double the amount. 
But to take the precept literally, and give 
evil no resistence, would be to make contra- 
band both preaching and praying, against 
the temptations and the wiles of the devil, 
and the bad acts of bad men. The precept, 
''Resist not evil,'^ relates to the passions and 
graces of the heart, and not to sensuous 
things. 

The next saying, "But whosoever shall 
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him 
the other also," means nothing more than 
that it is better to receive two wrongs than 



41 

to return one. ''And if any man will sue 
thee at the law, and take away thy coat, 
give him thy cloak a 'so. And whosoever 
shall compel thee to go a mile, f^o with him 
twain." These two precepts are alike, and 
mean that we should be willing to do more, 
even for the wicked, than thev can reason- 
ably expect. ''Owe no man anything." This 
signifies that we should be behind no man 
in any good act or ofl'ce. In none of these 
precepts, uttered by our Saviour, do we find 
the Christian fettered and placed at the 
mercy of wicked men. Non resistance is 
unreasonable and, necessarily unscriptural ; 
and may, therefore, be classed with all other 
fanatical hallucinations of the time. We 
should have the tenderest toleration for all 
opinions conscienciously derived from the 
Scriptures, whether they be correct or erro- 
nious. But errors dishonor God and w^eaken 
the cause of religion, a id therefore, should be 
exposed and eradicated. Denunciation is 
not reason; and he who uses that weapon 
alone, thereby show; his utter want of 
reason. 

When with other men's ainds you would prevail, 
Weigh out your thought < in reason's golden scale. 

It is brave to love ti uth, braver to search 
after it, and braver still to appropriate it. 
'^Wisdom is justified of her children.'^ The 



48 

Scripture shows wisdom where it speaks; 
and even its silences break forth in praises 
to God. 

''BLESSED AKE THE PURE IN HEART; FOR 
THEY SHALL SEE GOD." 

The natural eve is dimmer than the hoi- 
low, eyeless sockets of death, and the light 
of the sun is opacity itself, to the clearness 
of that spiritual eye that is to behold pure 
Spirit. Only the pure in heart will ever see 
God ; for they shall see him only by the 
light of purity that is in their hearts. Only 
in the intensest heart-center of created 
spirits will he set up his everlasting throne, 
and there be seen by the eye of resemblance. 
Here "The Kingdom of heaven cometh not 
with observation,'' because the natural eye 
cannot discern spiritual things. The material 
eye and the material light of the sun enable 
us to behold only the material. Sinner I 
without holiness you can never see the only 
adorable and most lovelv and loveable Beins; 
in the Universe. Even death, that awful 
change, that disrobes you of your body of 
flesh, and every other earthly possession, 
cannot bring you into his presence. His 
laws are still unspotted; you, only you, are 
defiled. There is an impassable gulf between 
holiness and sin. Sin knows no God ; and 
no God knows sin. 





















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